Capacity Development in Land Administration

The programme was developed jointly by the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and the Swedish Mapping, Cadaster and Land Registration Authority (Lantmäteriet), based on the results of a fact-finding mission which had been funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Monrovia.LLA is a new government agency in Liberia, with a core mandate to undertake actions and implement programmes in support of land governance, including land administration and management in Liberia in the interest of citizens’ equitable access to and use of land. This includes administering the deed registry and land registry systems, public survey and mapping services, and the promotion, support and development of land use plans and zoning schemes (and their implementation). As a new government agency, LLA lacks adequate funding for operations and has extremely low capacity in land disciplines, making it extremely difficult to carry out its statutory responsibilities. The Lantmäteriet is a Swedish Authority with a framework agreement with Sida. Lantmäteriet has experience from international cooperation with “sister” public authorities in its areas of expertise, such as IT support, property registration systems, infrastructure for geodata and land management issues, in Africa (e g Botswana and Rwanda) as well as Eastern Europe (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia and Kosovo). The framework agreement provides for the purchase of services (tjänsteköp inom staten) by Sida for capacity development of government agencies in Sweden’s partner countries in development cooperation, where Lantmäteriet can be assigned projects without public procurement given their unique competence and function. The overall goal of the proposed intervention is to contribute to “inclusive, transparent, effective and efficient delivery of land management and administration services in Liberia”. In addition, the proposed intervention is expected to have effect on the wider land sector, including capacitating civil society to carry out outreach and information campaigns on women’s land rights and improving the tenure security of customary land-owning communities through improved systems for land demarcation and registration. Strengthening LLA’s capacity for more effective donor coordination is an integral part of the project, which will ensure more effective use of the available resources across all priority areas of the LLA, including increasing LLA’s presence outside Monrovia where the need will be high.The expected outcomes of the proposed intervention are:• Needed skills and knowledge of LLA staff considerably improved and LLA staff are effectively and efficeintly carrying our their respective duties and responsibilities;• Women participating in land administration and management;• Local government creating and enforcing Land Use Plans;• Customary and protected land demarcated and managed.The proposed intervention is expected to be achieved through institutional cooperation between Lantmäteriet and LLA covering a proposed 5-year period (2018-2023). LLA will perform major parts of the work to achieve the expected outcomes, supported by the Swedish experts and others involved with the project. The project manager, an employee of Lantmäteriet, will be stationed full-time in Liberia, and will plan, manage and monitor the programme with the mandate to act within the approved agreement, plans and budget, and coordinate the activities of the Swedish Experts as well as support, guide and advise the LLA, as requested and needed. The local Project Director, a staff of the LLA, is responsible for the coordination of all LLA projects. These two main functions will have support from a quality assurance controller, a component leader, a coordinating expert and an advisory group.